There and Back Again, A Dille Family Tale

July

Malad Fireworks!  THE BEST.  Saying goodbye and heading for home.  Annual pilgrimage to the “Y” and a stop at Pete & Colleen's.  Plus an exciting PG-13 Hawaiian party at Nathan and Heather's.  But it was worth it for Thomas and Zach to finally make friends!  We also took Trent & Kayla to BYU Idaho.  Wow!  Lot's of change over the last 15 years.  But somehow the spirit of Ricks College still remains!

Back at home we've had almost daily showers.  Some major down pooring and it looks like Ireland with Ocotillo.  Weird, but a nice change from the constant look of death. We are surrounded by Mesquite trees, and they are BLACK.  We live in an area called Sleepy Hollow and it is rightly named because it looks like the old Disney movie by the same name with the pumpkin headed guy with dark, spooky looking trees.  Then, every July - green leaves pop out on all the black trees.  It's so strange.  I still miss Oregon.

ACMA - Every year we have the great priviledge of attending Shane's Arizona City Manager Association Conference.  But this year was a special treat because Shane, JT and Thomas got SICK!  If you have not been cooped up in a hotel room with three sick people, you have not lived!  The best part was that I got to go to Shane's banquet for him and eat the most delicious food and visit with the wives of the CM's that I've known for 12 years now, since the beginning of Shane's career.

EFY - Kayla's report:  This month I went to EFY, Especially For Youth.  It was so much fun to be able to hang with a bunch of other teens and share fun and clean jokes! What a nice break from everything worldly!  We all were put into companies, with about 12 girls and 12 boys.  Every company had a scripture to base their chant and their flag off of, and ours was John 10:16.  Our flag was a bunch of sheep being held in one hand, and our company name was 'Hold to the Fold'.  In the course of the week we had activities, such as the Variety show (like a talent show) and the Music Program.  Four girls and I tried out for the Variety show, and we got in!  I also participated in the Music Program. It was so spiritual and so much fun to be able to sing as pretty as we could!  We sang things like, "As Zion's Youth In Latter Days," and "Arise and Shine Forth,".  Every song was so pretty, and we all had really good voices, even the boys!  Over all, EFY was amazing, and I can't wait for next year!!

Thomas is becoming quite the toilet-time story teller.  Here's the latest: A farmer came in the house and gave him a camel to ride on.  But the camel had two (or maybe "too") poky ears.  So he had to hold his tail for a ride.  But then he could not hold his tail because there was poo-poo on it and so he held his tusks.  Then the camel fell into a big pit and he had to fill it with water to get the camel out.  Then the farmer said he could look in his door and he saw whole bunches of apples and carrots and he ate ALL the carrots and they were so yummy.  But then the farmer was sad that he ate all the carrots.  

Quite a plot, with a moral to boot - don't eat all the farmer's carrots.  

Baby Go Fish is trying to get "big tooth on top" number two.  But also talking!  Mamma, Dadda, Num Num, Uh Oh!, Tat Tat Tat, (Kitty cat), and I LOVE YOU!  It's so cute!  He is like a little puppy just crawling around the house.  And if we roll a ball he runs after it, throws it and runs after it, throws it and runs after it some more.  He's quite good at entertaining himself.  It's lovely!

The "Y" on the mountain! 

Love you all!